Party 9

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Sera moved forward into the room as Bronria pushed past to get to the duchess. The horror of so many deaths something she had forgotten traveling with friends away from her world of mercenaries and war. Shining her shield she walked around the room shining light on the carnage.

Looking back to the the Wizards she put of up her hand agreeing with Kellen’s decision that they shouldn’t enter. Then looking to Bronria. “How bad is she? Can we move her, we need to get her to a healer and quickly.”

Moving to Bronria she also knelt beside the duchess ready to lift the woman. Sera prepared to hoist her over her shoulder of need be.
 
"He took her. He took her, and it's my fault. By the gods, it's all my fault. I should have been able to protect her. You have to get her back."
Morwen groans, clearly feeling the weight of her injuries. She can look up at you, but clearly appears incapable of much more than that.
"My husband was never one for this lifestyle, but he accepted it for the sake of myself, and our daughter Eve. But when he was bitten, and contracted the curse, he chose to embrace it, letting the bestial side take over. I was forced to banish him from this domain, for fear of the safety of this town. For that, he cursed my name, promising to return to take our daughter into his pack. He returned while you were away, killing my guards, taking my daughter, and leaving me infected with his damnable curse."
She takes a deep breath, trying desperately not to panic.
"Please, I have maybe an hour, maybe less, until the curse takes hold. You have to help me. There must be something you can do."
 
Listening from outside the door, Abalister's curiosity overcame the paralyzing fear as connections were being formed on his mind. There was only one thing in all his studies that seemed to match what she was describing.

Stepping into the doorway, a solemn look on his feet are, the scholar states matter of factly, "Your husband is a lycanthrope," he frowns, eyes lowering before finishing, "as are you, now."
 
The moment the scholar says the word "lycanthrope", Bronria's mind is filled with half-remembered tales of butchered forest homesteads and hunting parties routed by unkillable monsters. She looks up at him and opens her mouth to speak, then shuts it. There's no time to ask for the details. Instead she turns back to Lady Morwen and grasps her hand, hoping to keep her lucid for as long as possible.

"Where do you think your husband might have gone? We can still track him down. We can find Eve and bring her back," she promises. All this to avoid saying: we have no way to save you. Both her wounds and her curse are far beyond Bronria's ability to treat, and she can't ask the other three for assistance. That would only confirm her weakness.
 
Kellen follows Abalister in, more cautiously than you would expect from the gnome who is generally ready to jump to help someone. I don't know how to cure this, I don't know if there is anything I can do. He says so much in a hushed whisper to Abalister "I don't know of anyway to help her...you don't either I think...We could confine her...we don't want her getting loose on the town." He paused, thinking - would she even let us confine her? Will her "bestial side" just take over and cause her to attack them? He spoke up, louder this time "What do we know of Lycanthropy? If we leave to find Lady Morwen's daughter, we cannot leave her here to...turn?" He is clearly unsure of the right word. "Who will minister to her?"
 
“We need to get her to a healer first, we can’t even attempt to help if she passes from injury.” Chewing on her lip she thinks hard. “There will be guards at the stockade, we can jail her there in case she turns.” Slipping her shield to her back the light of it shining now at the wall behind casting shadows over her face. “There will be little comforts of home but it’s all I can think of. If you two in all your researching don’t know of a cure I do not know where to begin. Outside finding the girl and ending the scum who did this.” She looked up at the two wizards eyes begging for further insight then back down to lady Morwen. “Do you think we can move you my lady?”
 
Abalister takes it all in stride, his fear being pushed aside momentarily by his inquisitive nature. He only briefly noted tomes on lycanthropy in the great libraries of the Host Tower in Luskan and those that he did see were usually beyond his level of access. He looks down at Kellen as the gnome fully enters the room, the light shining off the women's shields bouncing about the walls as they move.

As Seraphina speaks, his frowns, feeling as though his intellect is letting them down. He looks to the baroness, eyes scanning her wounds. They look grievous, but she does not seem to be walking the line between life and death at the moment. Purposely not looking at the gore about him, his mind turns inward in attempt to rush down the halls of his memory palace, once again seeking answers for their current predicament. He starts to consider if any dealing with a were-creature is enough to contract the curse and at what point in the cycle that it starts.

As those thoughts swirl in his brain, clouding out the halls in his mind, all images come to a crashing halt, bringing the scholar back to his present. His eyes widen behind half-moon spectacles. Boots clacking loudly against the floor, he rushes towards a window with little explanation. Once their, he inclines his head, careful with the drapery not to expose much of the room until he can confirm what stage of the cycle the moon is currently in..
 
"If we waste time, the monster will - " Bronria bites her tongue. No, she's right; Morwen needs to be brought to a healer before her condition worsens. That's the sensible thing to do. Still, it doesn't make her feel any better, and the thought of what might become of the Lady once the curse takes hold is gnawing at the back of her mind. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to block it out with action.

She gets to her feet and doffs her shield, leaving both of her hands free. "We could each support her between ourselves," she suggests. "Or one of us might carry her." Not to the stockade, she quietly hopes. That's one indignity she'd rather not inflict on Morwen after all she's suffered tonight.
 
Nodding Sera sheathes her weapong and pulls Lady Morwens arm up over her shoulder scooping up her legs and holding her in her arms as she stands. “I’ve got her, one of us needs the free hands in case those creatures have not retreated.”

Trying not to jostle the woman too badly Sera moves for the door. “We have little time to dawdle as you say, we need to get on their trail as soon as possible.” Looking to the duchess and frowns with concern pressing down the hall once all decide to move. She speaks to lady Mornwen again. “My lady could you please answer Bronria’s questions on the way to the temple. We will figured out a better strategy there.”
 
As Sera scoops up Lady Morwen, the injured woman hangs limp in her arms, unable to even draw up the strength to hold herself up.
"Rumar and his pack hunt in the forests to the east of here. I don't know how far into the forest their den is, but we almost never see them beyond the forest boundaries."
The temple is not too far from the keep, and on your arrival, the elderly priest ushers you in and gestures for you to set Morwen down, where he begins tending to her wounds.
 
Bronria sticks close by the other warrior's side as they leave the keep, torn between the desire to help treat Morwen's wounds and fear of getting in the way. It comes as a great relief when the temple finally comes into view. Before the priest even gets Morwen to a bed, she launches into a hurried explanation of the Duchess's condition.

"Lycanthropy, we think. Lady Morwen believes she has an hour before it takes hold, though I am not certain how accurate that estimate might be. I trust you have methods of treating such curses? The rest of her wounds are deep, but not fatal as far as we can tell -" she goes on, restlessly squeezing at the strap of her shield once more. Every second spent at the temple widens the distance between them and Eve, and the image of the massacred guards is still fresh in her mind.
 
Kellen pipes up "What uhh... what knowledge will help you heal her? I think we've committed ourselves to chasing down the, er, perpetrators of this heinous act. Is there something we can glean from the individuals we find? Anything that will help..."

Kellen stops, realizing he knows nothing that will help their friend and he's starting to panic, not used to not having solutions, or at least ideas of what to do.
 
Abalister follows on, mostly in a daze. His mind reels, wobbling between deciding the quickest exit from Daggerford, trying to recall any bit of information, and berating himself for not being able to provide the one thing he brings to the table; knowledge. Given time, he could travel to the great libraries of Waterdeep and have the information in due time. Unfortunately, time is not a thing that can be given.

And so he watches as the priest tends to the woman's wounds. Fear gives way to guilt as he again deduces that the smartest action in the situation, the one that provides the highest probability of survival, is to remove himself from the equation. But how could he? Lady Morwen had been nothing short of a gracious host, providing him ample opportunity to research in her library here in Daggerford. And what of his traveling companions; Kellen and Sera?He couldn't really abandon them. Kellen was bright, there could be no doubt, but by the scholar's estimation, hadn't really had the chance to study the way Abalister had. And Sera, while more than a competent fighter and perceptive enough, fighting things would only get her so far.

So, as he spoke, he was just as surprised as anyone else as he suggested, "We should make haste to the forest. At the very least, the girl still has a chance to be spared this grim fate..."
 
Sera was staring at her shield by this point. Having delivered Lady Morwen to healers and received the clues they’re ould need to carry on. Pulling to the side she took off her shield and began her meticulous examination of it. Her fingers worked around the well used metal band putting pressure on it to make sure it still held firm.

Her first look towards the others after several minutes held doubt, men she had practiced with slaughtered in a fashion and by something she knew not how to combat. These were the moments made for hero’s could she stand up and take the mantle?

“I am ready to face this night head on, if you would all lend me your strength I will give you my all in return.” Her mind made up Sera set her shield and stood once again.
 
Finally the words of the scholar and the warrior filter through Bronria's beleagured mind, and she stops harassing the priest for a moment. To hear both of them suggest that they hunt down the lycanthropes immediately - well, it doesn't shock her, but she had expected them to have more regard for their own skin. Perhaps she hasn't been giving them enough credit.

"Good." She straps her shield on securely and gives the others a curt nod. "Then we should depart at once. Are you with us, gnome?" she barks, that old impatience flaring up again.
 
Kellen takes a pause, realizing they are all waiting on him. "Err....yes, yes! For our friend, and I guess so this doesn't happen to anyone else is Daggerfell...though I guess this was targeted. Perhaps we will have the element of surprise eh? Wildwanderer help us, I think we will need it." Realizing that perhaps they should be moving and talking he finishes simply "Yes, let's."
 
The color has blanched from Abalister's face as the scholar stands in the threshold of the door, his gaze directed into the darkness of night. His eyes survey the clouds over his spectacles, a hand unconsciously rubs at the cover of a book dangling within the confines of a leather holster at his side. He nods his head once, apparently as the debate finalizes in his mind. Swallowing the fear once more, he turns back to the others and notes, "The longer we delay, the further the beasts are likely to get. We should make our way to the forest without delay."

He looks back to Lady Morwen once more, her pained visage and grisly injuries steeling himself against the terrifying prospects of what lay ahead. In his mind, he is already flipping through the pages of his spellbook as a reminder of what he had prepared for this day and what, now in hindsight, he wished he had.

He turns the sheets of parchment frantically, not taking the usual care he shows the documents, even if they are just within his head. An ink smudged fingertip runs down the page. Mage armor will definitely come in handy, but he chides himself for his usual preparation of 'comprehend languages'. In any other day of his life, this is a go to spell for him. How could he have known that they may soon be face to face with lycanthropes. A lesson learned, he surmises, as he turns a page. He is glad to see that both 'burning hands' and 'absorb elements' were among those he had bothered to prepare that morning, though he did wish again that he had prepared the 'chromatic orb', not only for the intended purpose of defense, but because the spell had intrigued him so when he found it in a tome in Luskan. He hadn't really had the chance to use the spell outside of casting it at stationary, non-living targets. But, now that he was thinking of it, he hadn't really cast any spells out of combat necessity...
 
“Then let us be on our way, we have a goal and a direction.” Dropping a knee before the Duchess she speaks a softened oath that she will find her daughter and bring her back or die trying.

Standing once more she looked over the group with a long calculating glance, before moving past to the door and out into the night.
 
As Sera, marched out, seemingly ready to fight these monsters alone, Kellen, swept up in her determination follows.

Heading out, he notices that though Abalister had spoken with equal determination he was now staring at Lady Morwen. As Kellen walks by he takes his crystal arcane focus to his lips, pushing it surely in Abalister's direction.

He speaks telepathically to Abalister"Are you ok, friend?".
 
Furrowing his brow as he feels the subtle mental intrusion before hearing the words in his mind, Abalister turns his attention towards Kellen. His mind races to comprehend what is happening before coming to an understanding of the cantrip. He offers a soft smile and a shrug of his shoulders, replying in kind, "I am as well as can be expected. I have no experience outside of the libraries and workshops of the arcane..."
 
You step out into the night, leaving Daggerford behind you as you press onwards into the forest. The trees start off as slender shadows in the moonlight as you arrive at the edges of the forest, but it doesn't take long for them to grow gnarled and twisted, threatening to keep you trapped in the woods forever. Continuing onwards, you notice a light fog rolling in along the ground. Soon, however, this fog grows thick, obscuring your view of anything more than a couple of feet away. You know that time is of the essence, but if you continue to try and find your way in this, it's quite possible that you will end up very lost. Otherwise, it is getting late, so you can set up camp here and hope that the mists clear by morning.
 
As the fog begins to thicken, Bronria grits her teeth in frustration. An already tough journey is fast becoming impossible. Glancing to her side, she takes some small relief in seeing that the rest of the group are still visible. She doesn't trust herself not to lose her nerve if they should suddenly disappear from sight.

Of course, it would be easier to keep them close at hand if they make camp until dawn, but then what? Then the lycanthropes would have all the time they need to devour Eve, or turn her into another monster. Their promise to rescue her would be broken hours after it was made. Bronria tries not to imagine having that on her conscience. "Can the rest of you make out any tracks?" she calls, desperation making her voice hard. "Beast or human, it makes no matter. If we do not find a path, this forest will soon make liars of us."
 
Abalister follows the group out into the night, casting a gaze back at the keep once they are beyond its walls. Keeping silent as they walk and leave Daggerford behind, his thoughts are turned inward, blindly following Bronria. His attention is quickly snapped back to the present reality, however, as the fog thickens, its opaque walls limiting their visibility. As the mists swirl about them, he runs a thumb along his staff, smearing a luminescent bug near the tip of its surface, he utters, "Lux," softly. A soft yellow light begins to shine from the staff that does little to dissipate the fog. He repeats the word several times, each time tamping the staff against the ground as the hue shifts through the color spectrum. Orange gives way to red which is shifted towards pink before finally settling on a white light. It seems as nothing he does helps, however, and he soon signs in frustration.

He looks forward, making out the silhouette of Bronria before him as she queries. Staring at the ground through his spectacles, he is dismayed to find he can barely see the ground beneath his feet, let alone make heads or tails of it. Not like I really could track anything even if it were a lighthouse, probably. He glances around, searching for the other two forms of his companions before commenting, "Mayhaps we should, uh, close ranks?"
 
Kellen walked with the others, into the growing darkness and fog of the forest. Determined, now that they were on their way, to seek out these monsters. i did leave home for learning and adventure, this is likely to be both, and I couldn't be safer but than with these two Warrior women. "Hmm" he continued out loud "if this is a natural fog, it should clear with morning. Perhaps we should wait, lest we lose ourselves. I have some small talent at following tracks in the forest...At the same time, what do we know of werewolves? Will they also need to rest?" He continued in this vein for a short time. Before finally, seemingly, settling on "I do not have the magic to dispel this fog, I think it is best for us, to close ranks to not lose each other, as Abalister says, but perhaps also to rest and press harder in the clear of morning."
 
Ordienna gasps in air, leaning against a tree in the fog. She is shaken, tears sting her eyes but she refuses to release them. Everything happened so fast, the minstrel cannot make sense of it all. No, she thinks to herself. Press forward. Don't dread on what happened.

Upon hearing voices in the distance again Ordienna loses her breath. More of those abominations? She peaks from behind the tree, but the fog is to thick, practically opaque to her eyes. She takes in a breath and prays to all the gods she knows of before slipping around the tree and making towards the voices. Vaguely she hears the word werewolves, her interest peaked as she closes in on the group. Their voices are not monstrous or gravelly, normal to her ears. But could this be a trick? An illusion?

The bard presses against another tree, the group now mostly in sight. She draws her rapier from her hip and tries to calm her pounding heart, wiping a traitorous tear from her eye as she pulls herself from her hiding place. "Who and what are you?" She asks simply, her rapier's tip landing inches from the chest of a woman. She realizes she outnumbered now, a man and a gnome accompany her. But she does not let this faze her, showing no fear--or so she hopes.

"I ask again: who and what are you? Kin of the beasts?"
 
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